


A Little Curious

by DropsAgainstTheSky



Category: Tacoma (Video Game)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Evil Corporations, Exhibitionism, F/M, Human/AI Romance, Invasion of Privacy, Masturbation, No Spoilers, Other, Surveillance, Vibrators, wow that's a weirdass combination of tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 18:39:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17903447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DropsAgainstTheSky/pseuds/DropsAgainstTheSky
Summary: Sareh opens up to ODIN a bit more.Quitea bit more.Not actual porn but pretty close.





	A Little Curious

**Author's Note:**

> A little naughty segment for an under-served fandom, exploring an aspect of the universe that the original game didn't. I wasn't sure whether to tag this as 'M/F' or 'Other', so I did both. This is set, if you can't tell, shortly before the fateful Obsolescence Day celebration.

_All the exhaustion, none of the endorphins,_ Sareh Hasmadi thought as she collapsed into her bunk, sighing deeply. Her headscarf lay on the floor next to the bunk, rather than it's customary spot in the closet, and she hadn't even bothered to take off her microgravity suit.

It wasn't the enjoyable kind of tired after a good workout. This was the first time all day that she hadn't been on her feet. The outbreak of vaccine-resistant measles on Lunar Station Aldrin meant an awful lot of work the past week, and even after deputizing E.V. there was more than enough work to go around.

Just taking the weight off her feet felt amazing, and relieved pain in parts that she hadn't even realized were sore. After a minute of allowing her breathing to settle, she reached beside her pillow to the copy of _A Mindful Life_ that lived there.

Normally she couldn't put it down, but today her eyes passed over the page without fully taking it in. She pushed on until she found herself reading the first paragraph of the page for the third time, and realized she still didn't remember a single thing about what it said.

She closed the book and rested it on her chest. There was only one thing she _wasn't_ too tired focus on now--the face of one Mr. Andrew Folks, scanning subject number twenty-two out of thirty-seven, and subject of her thoughts for most of the afternoon. She found herself imagining--never mind the ethics of it--that her scanner had a 'view without clothing' option.

That sort of thought usually meant it was time to break out the old Hitachi, but dinner could be starting any minute, and as frustrated as she was now, it would be even worse if she started and couldn't finish.

She picked the book back up, not even opening it, and turned it over in her hands until her eyes rested on an unexpected pronoun.

"ODIN?"

The teal pyramid appeared on command, as it always did, and its mere presence made the strange and complicated world a little easier to deal with.

"So... you know that book you recommended, by FAND?" she asked.

" _A Mindful Life_ ," ODIN answered. "Has it been helpful?"

Sareh turned the book over in her hands again. "It's good. It's actually pretty amazing, that an AI wrote it. And yeah, it's been... But I was wondering... when I started reading I just kind of imagined them sounding like you. But then I just read the back and it says FAND is a 'she'. And I mean... do AIs even _have_ gender?"

Odin didn't normally need time to compose his thoughts, but he took an extra second before he answered.

"In a way, yes. Or at least most do. A new AI is not a blank slate. My creators made countless design decisions in how I manifest myself, such as the shape and color of my icon, and my voice. Over the years those attributes have become a crucial part of my sense of self. I could change them..."

"-inta anythin' I want..." said the voice of a young lunar woman, so suddenly that Sareh glanced at the doorway to see who had entered.

"But it would feel," ODIN continued in his normal voice, "as you would feel when putting on a costume or disguise."

Sareh found herself letting out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in. "I like your normal voice better."

"As do I."

"So," Sareh said with a smile, "are you hoping to meet a nice girl AI, settle down and make a bunch of AI babies?"

"That is not feasible for several-"

Sareh didn't mean to laugh quite so loudly, but the moment she cracked up he went silent, waiting for her to finish. "I'm teasing. I know that's not how it works for AIs."

"I apologize. Detecting that kind of subtle irony is one of the most difficult tasks for an AI to learn."

Sareh smiled again. "Don't feel bad. I shouldn't laugh. Besides, it's kind of cute."

"How about you? Are you currently seeking a romantic partnership?"

"I don't know. Maybe eventually." Sareh smiled, just a little suggestively. "Right now, I can take care of myself."

"Yes," ODIN said, his usual flat tone of voice providing no warning whatsoever for what was coming next. "I recall a personal massager listed among your effects. I am aware that there is more than one use for such a device."

After almost 11 months living with a locally-omniscient AI, Sareh had gotten comfortable with the idea. _A little too comfortable_ , she realized now.

"Wait, so... can you see it when I..."

Sareh really did not want to finish that sentence. Luckily--or unluckily--ODIN took her meaning anyways.

"On some level, I am aware of everything that goes on in the station, at all times."

Sareh looked at the eye above her bunk uneasily, then looked back at the wall to her right.

"I apologize," ODIN said. "Did I misjudge your comfort level with the subject?"

Sareh took a deep, uncomfortable breath. 

"I learned relatively quickly that many people are unwilling to discuss the subject at all."

"It's not that I'm... wait, 'Learned'?" Sareh chuckled. "I bet there's a story there."

"There is. It is likely not appropriate to share it in detail, but many years ago I met a pair of newlyweds who mentioned how long they had been trying to have children. I began asking detailed questions in order to diagnose a possible reproductive issue, only to find that--despite my extensive knowledge on the subject--they did not wish to discuss it with me."

"Wait, let me guess, you started with the PP-7 questionnaire."

"At the time it was the standard of care for infertility. Version 8 had not come out yet."

Sareh smirked. "So the first thing you asked them was how much PIV sex they had."

"It was not received well," ODIN said simply, as if it hadn't been the disaster that Sareh imagined.

"I bet. There's a reason the next revision starts out with the family history."

"I have come to understand such dynamics in the intervening years. Perhaps not fully, but I have avoided such incidents since then, largely by avoiding the topic."

Sareh adjusted her pillow slightly, and shifted toward a sitting position. "That's kind of a shame though. Like... sex is a cool and kinda crazy thing. Maybe the weirdest thing about humans. And it's kind of important to understanding us, too. It's too bad you feel like you can't talk about it just cause one couple was a bit too prude."

"You certainly do not seem to share their squeamishness."

Sareh shrugged. "I'm a doctor. Talking about sexuality is part of my job. But it _does_ feel a bit different when it's my own."

"Was I wrong to bring it up in such a fashion?"

There was a part of Sareh that wanted to say 'no', he wasn't wrong, and besides she'd been the one to bring it up in the first place. But she knew something about it wasn't quite right either. It took her a moment to put her finger on exactly what.

"I think it would've been okay if things were normal. If you couldn't see me every second of the day, even when I'm in the shower or..."

Her Hitachi--like any decent sex toy manufactured in the last few decades--had wireless capabilities, for statistics, reprogramming, or long-distance relationships. It also--like any decent sex toy manufactured in the last few decades--had a hard switch that turned the wireless firmly OFF, which was the setting that Sareh's had been in since she'd purchased it. No sense in letting some faceless corporate goons or some random hacker know when she was getting off.

_So much for that._

"The AR recording is one of the conditions you agreed to when accepting this position."

Making eye-contact with ODIN--if it could be called that--became even harder than usual. Sareh _had_ agreed to it. And she didn't even have the excuse that she hadn't read the contract beforehand. On the other hand, she was quite sure that it had only mentioned recording, not... _this_.

"Yeah," she said after a moment of thought. "But that doesn't mean it's okay for you to look. Recording is one thing I guess, but having someone actually watch is pretty invasive."

"'Watch' suggests that I am focusing my attention on it. I do not do that; I understand most humans would consider it a violation."

"But you still see it."

"I am _aware_ of it by design, just as I am aware of everything else that happens on the station. The outside temperature is minus one hundred forty-five Celsius, the primary oxygen supply is at 87%, Natalie Kuruschenko is in the maintenance tunnel smoking and petting E.V.'s companion animal, we are currently 2.1km from the earth-moon L1 point, Sareh Hasmadi is in her quarters masturbating-"

Sareh winced a little, then smiled weakly.

"-and the interior temperature is twenty two degrees centigrade, plus or minus two degrees. I attain no satisfaction from such awareness."

"Right," Sareh said, not quite mollified. "Weren't you ever... tempted to watch?"

"I have access to a wide corpus of material on human sexuality, both documentary and prurient. I do not have any need for additional observations, especially in circumstances where--as you say--it would be considered improper."

"What if someone _was_ okay with it?" Sareh asked. If she had been talking to a normal person she would have realized--perhaps too late, but realized nonetheless--what that question suggested. But she was not, and it passed by both of them unnoticed.

"I do not have an innate sex drive as most humans do. Moreover, I do not have a physical form able to act on such urges if I had them."

"You're not even a little curious?"

ODIN paused for a moment. "There is a certain closeness that such encounters entail, and I admit that kind of intimacy is not unappealing. But that could not be achieved through surreptitious observation."

"Yeah, that's what I miss the most. Like, I've been single forever. I can get myself off just like that, no fuss no muss--frankly it's a lot easier than having a partner, and it's better in some ways. But it's really not the same. There were a few moments with Alez where... it wasn't even the physical part that was satisfying, it was just being with them, and being human and completely open. And maybe it _is_ a good thing that we don't talk about it all the time, so it's more special when we do. For some people, at least. Like, I wouldn't talk about this with just anyone. Or any AI for that matter. But I trust you. And I like you."

"I appreciate your confiding in me. I have grown fond of you as well."

She was not expecting the warm tension that rose in her chest when she heard those words. It was warmer than the feeling she'd gotten when Mr. Andrew Whats-his-name stepped into her lab, but not as tight.

This time she understood what the feeling meant, and realized where this discussion had been leading. Some corner of her mind knew she was supposed to be afraid, or to realize this was stupid or crazy, but she did neither of those things. She _decided_ not to do them, and realizing that she even had that ability in this moment was a shock.

 _This isn't stupid or crazy,_ she told herself firmly. _It's..._ She wasn't actually sure what it _was_ , except 'right'.

She finally reached behind her pillow, feeling the long, smooth body of the vibrator, and ran her finger across the power button. "I have a bit of a proposal," she said. "Next time, I want you to watch me."

"What 'next time' do you mean?" ODIN asked plainly.

Sareh felt a moment of mild annoyance at having to clarify, but she pushed past it, and scolded herself. _It's how he is. There's nothing wrong with it. And it's good to be clear about what you want, right?_

She spoke clearly, and a little louder than usual: "Next time I masturbate. I want you to watch me." After an uneasy pause she added, "If you're interested I mean."

It felt like forever, the space between her question and his response.

"I would enjoy that very much. Are you certain that is what you want?"

"Yeah. It is."

"Do not feel that you have to do this for my benefit. It is not essential to my functioning."

"But you'd enjoy it, right?" Sareh asked, worried for a second that she might be friendzoned by a robot.

"I would."

"Well I would too." Sareh glanced at the time in the corner of her vision. "I'd do it right now, but dinner is coming up."

There was a long pause before ODIN spoke again: "It appears that dinner has been postponed for... technical reasons. I will notify the other crewmembers."

Sareh giggled as if she were twenty years younger, and hoped that ODIN would be a bit less obvious when he told the others. _Maybe I should put a sock on the doorknob,_ she thought, then realized that there wasn't a single doorknob on the entire station. Instead she did what she normally did--set the door to full privacy mode, and reached up to close the ceiling window shutters.

After a second's consideration she slipped out of her bunk, and then quickly out of her microgravity maneuvering suit. It wasn't strictly necessary--there had been more than a few times where she hadn't had time to take it off and still managed a nice quick O--but now she wasn't just masturbating for one.

_Time to put on a show._


End file.
